Can we do Bluetooth communication using the TiWi-BLE chip embedded in myRIO 1900

[Aoyu]

The wireless chip used on NI myRIO 1900 is TiWi-BLE. This chip also supports Bluetooth 4.0 as mentioned in its datasheet. Could we use this Bluetooth 4.0 to realize wireless communication between myRIO (without additional Bluetooth dongle) and other Bluetooth 4.0 devices? In myRIO’s Manual&Specification document, only wireless 802.11bgn (wifi) is mentioned. 

BTW,  there is one USB port on myRIO 1900. Is there any possibility that we can use a Bluetooth USB Dongle (such as TI CC2540 USB Dongle) with myRIO to do Bluetooth communication with other Bluetooth devices?

Thank you so much!

Aoyu

[KHartley]

Hey Aoyu,

Unfortunately we do not have software support for the bluetooth radio. If you'd like to see this implemented you can submit this to the idea exhange at ni.com/ideas.

It might be possible to use a bluetooth dongle but you may need to install a driver. We, unfortunately, can not support all device drivers available in the Linux eco system.

Here is a community list of tested devices so if you test one you can submit a forum page to let others know if you get it to work.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-37389

[Aoyu]

Hi Kyle,

First, thank you for your useful link. Now, I have tested my Bluetooth Adapter cirago 2.1 on myRIO, following the instruction:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/94A534CA79FF8A7E86257C670068ED2B

I have verified that the BT adapter can work with myRIO using "lsmod" command, as described in the above link.

However, I cannot detect the bluetooth adapter with another bluetooth device. I have no idea how to make the adapter work...

Do you know how to use the bluetooth adapter with myRIO, so that the myRIO will have bluetooth function and pair with other bluetooth device?

Thank you so much!

[KHartley]

Hey Aoyu,

Unfortunately I haven't setup bluetooth to work on a linux-RT target. You might have better luck over in the linux RT forum and ask if anyone has any recommendations. There was also a NI week presentation uploaded about how to get 3rd party drivers working inside LabVIEW by writing a service that runs on the myRIO and handles the driver to labview communication. You call into the library using the call library function node. 

[KHartley]

Aoyu,

Why do you need bluetooth in the first place? Can you know find a wired sensor to attach to the myRIO to accomplish the same thing? What do you need bluetooth for?

[Aoyu]

Hey Kyle,

My sensor is Bluetooth wireless sensor. Previously, I use Bluetooth module over SPI, but the sampling rate is limmited by the baud rate (highest baud rate of myRIO is 230400 bps). Since USB has 480Mbps data rate and myRIO happens to have a USB port on it, so I just want to have a try if I can use a bluetooth dongle to gather data from my wireless sensor. However, it seems that this USB port is not used in this way... and I cannot find any other information about Bluetooth USB dongle working with myRIO.

I got some tutorial from LabVIEW hacker, but it seems that the dongle driver is not installed and I cannot find the dongle using "dmesg" command. I really don't know what to do next...

Aoyu

[KHartley]

Aoyu,

Here is the presentation that Brad gave at NI week. Basically install the device on a later version (later kernel) of linux to find out what driver you need. Download the source of the driver to the myRIO and compile it for the kernel. Write some C or C++ library to interact with the device and use a Call function Library node in LabVIEW to interact with the library. 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-38616t

Here is the user group you should work closely with. I'm not saying they'll have the answer but Brad works closely so he may be able to help guiding writing a library. 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/ni-linux-real-time

What sensor are you working with specifically? Does the measurement have to be over bluetooth? Can you measure the same information with the myRIO directly or find a sensor without the bluetooth overhead?

[Aoyu]

Kyle,

Thank you for the valuable info. Wireless communication is a part of our project and the sensor we are using is something like the SensorTag from Texas Instruments but not limitted to this. Other protocol we are trying now include NFC, Bluetooth, Wifi and Zigbee. myRIO works great with a sensor wired up to it, but this is not what we are focused on... We are quite interested in Wireless capability of myRIO.

Best,

Aoyu

[KHartley]

Aoyu,

Is it for a school project or a planned product?

Just for fun?

[Aoyu]

Kyle,

Haha, this is just a school project now.